Some Friends
by Coffeebeads
Summary: Name changed from Some Leader The gang go out to skateboard, they think it's a good idea but not all good ideas work out like planned and the gang are left feeling responcible for TJ's accident.
1. Plans for the weekend

**Hey everyone, now I'm not normally into Recess, but one night I had nothing better to do and just then I realised how much of a great person TJ is. By far my favourite of the Recess' characters.**

**So this my story that I wrote about him. **

**PS – I'm making it up as I go along. Sorry if it sucks eggs.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Recess or any of it's characters.**

The gang were sitting in their usual seats in their usual class in their usual moods. They had a tiring week. It was Friday. Last lesson. And five minutes till the bell would ring. Miss. Grotkey was giving another lecture on how people should treat each other with kindness… The class had had enough of the same old dribble.

"Now, if we all treated our friends, and everyone else the same way as we would like to be treated ourselves then-,"

Ring!

"-Oh my, I didn't realise it was the end of the day already, my goodness, how the time flies!" There was a moments silence and all of the kids looked at Miss. Grotkey expectantly. She just stared at the ceiling thoughtfully and contently. She quickly snapped out of her moment, "Oh yes, children. You may go."

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, everyone left the class screaming in their usual exaggerated manner.

--- ---

On their way home, the gang decided to stop by at Kellso's. They got comfortable in their seats and slurped noisily on their slushies. "So, Teej, what are your plans for the weekend?" asked Spinelli.

"Oh I donno, what do you all have in mind, guys?"

"I was thinking we could all go round my house and watch me as I experiment on my new Photon Matter Disrupter Turbo 2000," suggested Gretchen.

"We could. If we knew what one was," replied Vince.

"It is a contraption capable of splitting microscopic cells. It is a simple concept of miniature lasers and lights-," she dragged on. No one was really paying attention. They wouldn't understand much anyway.

"Hey I know," TJ said as Gretchen finished theorising her own ideas that could improve the Photon Matter Disrupter, "How about we all go skateboarding?"

"Hey yeah, we could go to that old road nearby to where I live! No one uses it on the weekends, it's completely deserted!" Spinelli suggested.

"Great idea, you want I could impress you all with my cool moves!" bragged Vince.

"I could study some more on physics while we are there!" Gretchen agreed.

"Oh skateboarding, it is like the art of gravity, the natural pull of the earth's forces," recited Mikey.

"My dad has a really old skateboard that he'd probably let me use, it was built before speed limits were created!" Gus and the rest of the gang talked for a long time and finally decided it was best that they all go before street lights went on.


	2. Absent

**Thank you public for the 1 review I got. I'm hoping for more. I know the first chapter was a bit boring so I'll go straight to the action. Soon.**

**Also I'd like to say that in my story TJ owns a mobile. I doubt he owns one in the television show.**

**Standard disclaimer applies.**

So the plans were made. On Saturday the gang would hang out and eat pizza at Kellso's and on Sunday they would go skateboarding.

The next day at Kellso's, TJ stood waiting for his friends to arrive. They were already five minutes late and he was getting bored of waiting outside in the cold. With his hands in his pockets, TJ twiddled his fingers around in the lining of his trousers. They caught onto something. TJ took out a slip of paper that was scrunched up in his left pocket. It read;

"_TJ,_

_Your friend, Spinelli, called yesterday afternoon when you were doing homework. She said that she can't come tomorrow to Kellso's because wrestling clashes with your arrangement. _

_Love Mum._

_P.S. Make sure you wear clean underwear tomorrow."_

TJ sighed. His mum must have put it in his pocket yesterday when he was reading comics. She always left a fresh pair of trousers for him.

Well that's one of his friends who aren't late. Who aren't coming.

He stood there for another few minutes before he got onto the rock kicking stage of boredom. _Where was everyone?_ TJ folded the paper and put it back into his pocket.

Mr. Kellso mopping up a mess when he noticed TJ leaning against the window railing of his store. He went outside and said to TJ, "Hey TJ, how are things going?'

"Not so good I'm afraid. My friends are fifteen minutes late to meeting me here."

"Listen, yesterday ten minutes after everyone had gone, Vince came running back and asked if you were still here. I told him that you left with everybody else. He said something about not being able to make it today."

There was an uncomfortable silence.

TJ decided to break it, "Well… do you know why?"

"I'm sorry. I don't." answered Kellso and he looked down while wiping his hands on the white hand towel that he was holding, "Do you want to go wait inside?"

TJ nodded and entered the store. He bought a handful of Beany McGum and sat down at the counter.

Just then his phone rang. He rummaged around in his pockets to find where the music was coming from. He grabbed the phone and answered. It was Gus… Actually it was Gus's father shouting in his old military tone. TJ had to hold the phone back a bit because it was so loud.

"Sergeant Griswold here! I am afraid that my son cannot attend today's meeting with his… err… friends. He has already been scheduled for lessons in evasive action."

"Err… ok? Is Gus there?" asked TJ.

"He cannot come to the phone at this time. I can have him call you back at seven pm."

"No, it's okay. I'll see him tomorrow," replied TJ and he hung up.

Ok. Three of his five best friends have abandoned him. Now where are the others? Almost an hour passed and still no one came. TJ said goodbye and left in the direction of his home. There was nothing more he could do. Not till tomorrow.


	3. Accident

**Thank you public for the 4 reviews I got. Super! That is more than I could have expected from this!**

**Standard disclaimer applies.**

That Sunday TJ was first to the road by Spinelli's house. He wanted the best opportunity to make his friends feel guilty for abandoning him yesterday. He leaned against a picket fence and his skateboard and waited. Gretchen was the second to get there.

"Oh, hello TJ. I want to apologise for my absence yesterday, there was an exhibit at the museum that I just couldn't refuse."

"It's okay," said TJ trying to be as simple and short as possible.

"Well…oh-kay then," replied Gretchen unsurely. TJ wouldn't make eye contact with her. "I'll just stand here and wait for the others."

They waited there for a very short time before Vince showed up, Gretchen greeted him and then saw Spinelli coming and went over to talk to her about her last violently explosive experiment. Vince and TJ were left to talk.

"Hey I hope it was okay that I didn't show up yesterday. It was a one-time thing, I promise."

There was a moments silence. Before Mikey came with Gus at his side.

"Why hello friends! I trust you all had fun yesterday!"

"Yeah, wrestling was amazing! You should have seen the Bone Crusher! That puny midget didn't know what was coming to him!" Spinelli shouted.

"No, I was talking about the get-together," replied Mikey.

"About that, I'm sorry I couldn't be there. I'm sure you all had a good time without me," said Spinelli.

"You didn't go?" asked Gretchen.

"You didn't notice?" asked Spinelli.

"Yeah, everyone who went had a really good time," TJ said as he got on his board and skated past them.

The gang looked at each other for a moment and then followed TJ.

They watched him go back and forth.

"We're all sorry we didn't tell you we couldn't go," said Gus.

"We didn't know that we couldn't go at the time," continued Gretchen.

TJ didn't answer.

"You weren't at home when I tried to call," claimed Gretchen.

Once again, TJ didn't answer.

"We had to do other things" continued Spinelli to the rest of the gang.

And once more, TJ didn't answer.

Guilt was riding up on the other gang members. The gang tried to talk to TJ but he wouldn't listen. The only thing left to do was leave him alone to think for a while.

"TJ, we are just going to ignore you and skate for a while. While ignoring you," added Spinelli.

They all got onto their skateboards except Gretchen, who wanted to record the angle of the various skate tricks. She sat down on the pavement and got out her Galileo. After a few minutes of wheels hitting asphalt, the gang decided to break the silence and to try once again to talk to TJ.

**(A/N: who says what is up to your imagination, unless I specifically say who says what)**

"Come on, TJ. Talk to us man."

"You can't stay silent forever!"

"Say something."

"For goodness sake!"

"We said we're sorry."

"Just say something."

"Don't cut off the nose to spite the face!"

"Now seriously."

"TJ!"

"TJ!"

"TJ!"

And all at the same time, they all shouted very loudly, "TJ!"

The noise volume startled TJ and he lost control and balance. He was heading downhill, right toward the speeding traffic that was at the very end of the street. TJ screamed and tried to stop but couldn't. He was gaining speed fast.

The rest of the gang followed TJ's process from the top of the hill. "TJ!" they all screamed.

That was the last thing TJ heard before he entered the traffic.


	4. Diagnosis

**Thank you everyone who read and reviewed! I'm sorry for leaving an evil cliffy that had you all screaming. But I'll make it up to you. Voila! The next chapter. In case you don't know where it is, look down the page and you'll find it :D**

**Oh yeah, and sorry if the chapter doesn't sound too professional in medical terms, I'll try to make it work but as some of you might know, I am not a doctor.**

The gang were waiting outside the OP room in the hospital. They were all sitting in either tense and nervous positions or lay across a couple of chairs with a pensive look on their faces. Either way, they were not that comfortable knowing TJ was in the operation room because of them. "What happened?" breathed Spinelli finally breaking the silence.

"It was all my fault! I blame myself!" shouted Mickey.

"It was all of our fault," spoke Gretchen.

"If he didn't want to talk, we shouldn't have tried to make him," said Vince spitefully to himself.

"And now look what has become of our fallen leader?" asked Mickey overdramatically.

Spinelli jumped off of the chair and walked over to the door to the OP room. The others joined her. They saw doctors standing next to each other, one looked at the other one and suddenly caught sight of the group looking through the window. He muttered something to the other doctor and walked towards the door.

The gang ran back and sat down at their chairs each with a magazine in their hands or playing with their nails. The doctor stepped through the doorframe and towards the gang. "I thought you'd be curious to what happened to TJ."

"Of course," Gretchen said solemnly as everyone looked up or sat up in their seats.

"Well, so am I, can you please explain your part of the story," the doctor asked cheerfully, maybe he was trying to be nice to little children or maybe he was like that all the time.

The gang took turns explaining but making sure to leave out how they were involved.

"Okay then," spoke the doctor a little less cheerfully, "You know, 75 of teenagers wish they'd have paid more attention to the road each week," Vince was about to interrupt when the doctor, Doctor Coleman continued, "TJ has had some very terrible injuries, some might ever take weeks to fully recover."

"What's wrong with him, doc?" asked Gus.

"Earl just took him to the X-ray room but we're pretty sure that he has a broken arm, a pair of broken ribs and a sprained ankle."

"What are you going to do to him?" asked Gus speaking for the first time.

"Well we're not sure yet but we'll tell you when we're finished with the X-ray."

Doctor Coleman left to go to the X-ray room. Gretchen decided to break the silence, "Shouldn't we call TJ's parents?"

"I'll go do that now," Spinelli left her friends as they sat back down in the waiting room.

---Recess---

The phone conversation was rather short and rushed. This is pretty much how it went.

_Ring… ring…ri-_

"Hello, Detweiler's residence, how may I help you?" asked a female voice.

"Hi, this is Spinelli," she began.

"Oh, hi, Spinelli!"

"Listen, there was an accident," Spinelli quietly scorned herself at the mention of the word, "TJ is in the St. Mary's hospital." The person on the other end of the phone gasped loudly. **(A/N- I made up the hospital name coz I don't know any.)**

"What happened?" she asked.

"Car crash. Details are sketchy right now but the doctor thinks it's a broken arm, sprained ankle and stuff like that. Teej's in the X-ray room right now."

"I'll be there soon."

The person on the other end of the phone hung up. Spinelli sighed and turned back towards the waiting room.

---Recess---

"So, how did his mum take it?" asked Vince when Spinelli returned.

"Well, she said she'd be here in a minute and I'm pretty sure she started crying in the background," sighed Spinelli as she dropped onto a chair. Just then Doctor Coleman and his partner, supposedly Doctor Earl, entered the waiting room wearing sad and devastated looks on their faces. In those expressions was mixed in the look of dread, as if they had something to say but they didn't want to put it into words. "Well, what did you find out?" enquired Spinelli.

"Well, as we predicted, TJ's arm and two of his right ribs are broken, as well as a sprained ankle but we have discovered that he may have some mental problems. Shouting, screaming and rage disorder. He hit his head and did quite a number. Nothing physical though. You just might expect a little anger in his voice, if he starts shouting at you, please don't take it personally for TJ's sake," Doctor Coleman answered.

---Recess---

**(A/N- just so you know, I don't know TJ's mum's name – actually, I'm not sure she has one. I'll just call her 'TJ's mum')(A/N- as you may have noticed, I'm not American. I spell mum without an O)**

TJ's mum was frantically running around looking for the keys to the car. Becky came in and started preparing dinner. "Want me to make any seconds?" asked Becky.

"Not now, I can't eat."

"Oh come on. This isn't another one of your diet ideas, is it?"

"No, I have to go see TJ."

"Arh! The dweeb and his brat friends need a ride to Kellso's again? Seriously, mum! You have to say 'no' to that little hooligan sometimes! Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, yesterday, TJ thought it would be funny to go into my room and take all of my stationery! And now I can't find it." Becky was going to say more but her mum cut her off.

"This is serious, Becky." She stopped and looked Becky eye-to-eye. "Your brother is in hospital," she breathed barely audibly.

"Wh-what?"

"Your brother had an accident and he's in hospital."

Becky stood staring into space pensively and then turned and opened a drawer. She grabbed the keys to the car and turned back to her mother, "Let's go, I'll drive."

In the car, the pair didn't say anything to each other. Becky kept her focus on the road and her mother just sat twiddling with her coat button. "So, what happened?" asked Becky after a while.

"I don't know. All I know is that some of the injuries are quite serious. Spinelli called me ten minutes ago. St. Mary's hospital."

Becky found a parking space and drove back in reverse until she was content with the position of the car. They got out, locked the door and headed towards the reception where they found a friendly looking blonde woman who quickly showed them to a waiting room outside a OP room. They found the gang there who greeted them warmly yet absent-mindedly. "So, you gonna tell us what happened?" Becky asked the gang.

The gang got an unwanted flashback. They wanted to block it out, but all of them failed.

---Flashback---

"TJ!" the gang screamed in unison. TJ was startled and lost balance. The skateboard went downhill. He didn't have time or opportunity to change course and he was gathering momentum fast. When he reached the traffic, he put his arms over his head protectively just before a large red and grey lorry honked at him and tried to turn direction. But the seconds were too few and the lorry collided with TJ sending him flying off his board to his left where he landed on a blue car and slipped off it's back to hit the ground painfully. Luckily, he wasn't conscious of that pain but the pain would come soon enough.

---End of Flashback---

The gang explained this in fewer words to the sister and her mother. They just stared out at the warmly pained drywall. This was a lot of information to take in all at once. Before the news kicked, the two doctors came in, one with a clipboard in his hands, the other pulling the glove off of his hand finger by finger. "Hello, you must be Mrs. Detweiler. Your son is in there," directed one of the doctors to a room a corridor to their left where one door stood right at the end. The gang got up and walked with Becky and her mum to the room.

They entered to see a resting TJ lying on the bed. On a chair to the side lay TJ's trademark shirt and jacket. The room was relatively warm and the bandages hiding TJ's chest could not be seen under the thick white blanket. A drip was attached to TJ's arm and a packet of AB+ blood hung on a peg by TJ's bed. A heart monitor was on the other side of the bed and was beeping regularly, the panel showed even movements of the heart as the blood pumped through TJ's veins, arteries and capillaries. The doctors entered the room after everyone was in. They saw the looks on the friends and family's faces and spoke up.

"TJ was very lucky. If the ambulance was called on a second later then he would he on a breathing machine now. Or worse," he added.

For the next few minutes, the group just floated around the bed – sitting, lying or standing anxiously waiting for some development to occur. Soon enough, everyone was asleep except one. Gus was sitting in a chair at the end of the bed just staring at TJ with his head in his arms. He sat listening to the regular beeping and noticed a slight change in speed. Looking carefully at TJ, he also noticed several beads of sweat rolling down his forehead. "Err… guys? I think there's something wrong."

Gus woke everyone with a start they glanced over at the bedridden child and quickly called in a doctor. This doctor seemed unfamiliar, she was on nightshift and had a clipboard that she was frantically looking over. She was a coloured woman with thick black hair tied back into a high ponytail. "I can't think of any reason for the sudden changes," she admitted to no one in particular. Everyone was panicking. Especially TJ.

---Recess---

TJ was standing on the top of the world, he felt perfect. Then suddenly and without warning, his friends materialised around him, they wore frowns and unfriendly expressions that were either unreadable or indescribable, they surrounded TJ and closed in. TJ looked for an opening and upon finding one between Mickey and Gretchen, he ducked between them and ran. He constantly looked back to see where his 'friends' were and unexpectedly ran into open traffic where he felt inexpressible pain but not physical, but mental. For the expressions his 'friends' wore were those that he had only seen in his nightmares, and rare ones at that. This was one of them. TJ was knocked over and pushed back and forth between several different cars and lorries until he completely blacked out.

He gained consciousness slowly and when he forced his eyes open, he found himself in total emptiness. His surroundings were black and all he saw was black. It pained him, the blinding darkness, it brought him thought that were never meant to be, terrible thoughts. TJ closed his eyes and tried his best to diminish these thoughts from existence. "No," he said to himself, "my friends would never do that to me." He thought over and over, he calmed down and slowly opened his eyes.

---Recess---

The doctor stood over TJ and examined him. "He seems to be calming down," she informed. TJ's vital signs were back to normal and the small beads of sweat were leaving though his brow was still moist. "I believe Dr. Coleman told you about TJ's mood swings changing for a while?" asked the Doctor.

"He said that TJ might shout at us sometimes and that we shouldn't blame him," confirmed Vince.

The doctor smiled and made one final tick on her clipboard, she was about to leave when TJ's eyes opened a crack. Everyone stared at him and gradually, TJ's eyes gained focus as he looked around at his surroundings and the people in the room. A small smile appeared on his freckled face, "Hey guys," he croaked, "How long was I out?"

Everyone just stared at him, TJ's mum swallowed a sob and ran up to hug her son the best she could without hurting him. TJ just groaned and gave her a small one-armed hug. The doctor looked at the pair hoping his mother would release him before any more damage was caused. "How you feeling?" she asked kindly.

"I've been better," he muttered as his mother set him back down. "So… any serious damage done?" he asked.

"Broken arm and ribs, sprained ankle, you knocked your head pretty bad," the doctor answered.

"What time is it?" asked TJ.

"Just about midnight," the doctor replied. All this time, everyone else was speechless. Just then, they found their voices.

"Midnight? Oh, man, my mum's gonna be worried sick!" Vince dashed out of the room, soon followed by Mickey, Gus and Gretchen.

Spinelli just sat there, staring at TJ. TJ noticed this and looked over at her, she didn't look away, she just kept staring at him. Becky came over to the bed and knelt down by it, "You want anything, TJ?" she asked.

TJ was going to retort by asked 'since when do you call me 'TJ'?' but stopped to see the obvious answer, "No thanks, I'm good."

Becky got up and started making her way out of the room, she looked back at him before she left and sighed. Spinelli just sat there. "What's wrong with you?" TJ asked her.

She paused before answering, "Nothing, look, TJ, I wanted to apologise to for today, we all do."

"It's no big, you didn't mean to. I was acting like a jerk to you guys," admitted TJ.

Spinelli cracked a smile, "You may have been acting like a jerk but we didn't have to go and nearly _kill _you. You were still _our_ jerk."


End file.
